Sex as a Moderator of Adolescents' Weight Loss Treatment Outcomes

Abstract

Purpose: Weight loss treatments targeting adolescents often occur in mixed-sex contexts and produce variable outcomes. Sex considerations may be of particular importance, especially given differences in social relating. This study aggregated data from two randomized controlled trials of a peer-enhanced intervention compared with a standard cognitive-behavioral weight loss intervention to test the hypothesis that adolescent girls may demonstrate greater benefit than boys from a peer-enhanced weight loss intervention.

Methods: Participants were 193 adolescents with overweight/obesity (age M = 14.4 years, standard deviation = .99) from two randomized clinical trials comparing a peer-enhanced intervention with an active cognitive-behavioral weight loss intervention. Adolescents' percent over body mass index (percent greater than the 50th percentile for age and sex) was measured at baseline, end of treatment, and approximately 6 months post treatment. Multilevel modeling was used to test hypotheses.

Results: Findings suggested different weight change trajectories from baseline to end of treatment, and from end of treatment to follow-up. On average, all participants demonstrated weight loss from baseline to end of treatmentm and there was evidence that adolescent boys in the peer-enhanced condition may have benefited the most. On average, weight was maintained from end of treatment to follow-up.

Conclusion: Adolescent males may particularly benefit from weight loss interventions that incorporate a team component to supervised physical activity.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00024830 NCT00285558.

Keywords: Adolescent; Cognitive behavior therapy; Obesity; Peer influence; Physical activity; Weight loss.

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure of Potential Conflicts: The authors have no financial relationships or conflicts of interest relevant to this article to disclose.

Copyright © 2017 The Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Figures

Figure 1.

Percent over BMI by sex and treatment group from baseline to end of treatment.

Figure 2.

Percent over BMI by sex and treatment group from end of treatment to follow-up.